Come on, really? Yeah, dude’s got a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary last name. That’s like calling George Lucas George Puke-as, or Michael Bay Michael Gay- criticize them for their work, not their God given names.

(But Opinionated Internet Man! How does being unable to spell something on the internet beget laziness?)

Because websites like Google exist.
“What was that director guy’s name? The one that made all those movies with the twist at the end… M. Night something? I can’t spell his last name.”http://bit.ly/sZuapZ
“OH, that’s what it was.”

Well, Plasma, as a matter of fact, yes. I think most of us have, at some point. But the whole “let’s make fun of his name” just feels vaguely racist or ethnocentric or something. Like we’re saying he doesn’t deserve for his name to be spelled or pronounced correctly because it’s not something easy, like Jones or Smith. Like he doesn’t deserve our respect since he’s got a different-sounding name.

If he doesn’t deserve our respect because of his dumb movies, that’s fine (though I still think he gets a bad rap there too, but that’s a different story). But calling him M Night Shamalamadingdong just feels like a lazy ad hominem.

And I love puns, too! I… I guess I didn’t realize quite how strongly I felt about this?

I know that this post is coming about 24 hours too late to matter, and nobody will ever read it, but I figure I might as well respond, seeing as I started this mess.

Sorry if I offended anyone with my lame joke, but that really was all it was intended to be, a joke. You’re right in that I wrote the joke out of laziness. Not that I’m too lazy to google the correct spelling of Shyamalan, but because I’m too lazy to come up with a better joke than a lame “Rama lama ding dong” pun.

As far as possible racism or ethnocentrism go, I really didn’t mean it that way. I have nothing against people of Indian ancestry, it really was just a lame attempt at humor. I apologize if this was offensive.

If it makes any difference, I’m Polish American, and have a surname with a somewhat goofy spelling (no, I’m not posting my real name on the internet, sorry. that probably makes me a hypocrite). I have no problem with making fun of my own last name, or the surnames of my fellow vowel-challenged Poles.

I’m sorry, I probably over-reacted. I was more trying to make a general point for people to think about what they say than to pick on you. And Eastern European names can be hilarious, too! That’s a big part of my heritage, though that part of the family’s names are pretty tame (dad’s got a Norweigian name though, which is kind of ridiculous and kind of badass).

Anyway, all is forgiven, I apologize for making you feel bad about a silly joke. And Thorulf, I meant “God-given” as a common phrase, not literally that someone other than his parents ha bestowed his name upon him. But after my “pay attention to what you say” speech, it’s a good point, and I’d be a hypocrite to say otherwise.

Eh, truth be told, moving around comics on WordPress is a real bongo. Given that I’m three weeks ahead, not only do I have to delete three weeks worth of post pages, but each comic downloads into four separate folders with different versions of the image. (Normal, archive, RSS, thumbnail) So just to insert one comic, I’d have to spend time removing all that, renumbering everything, reuploading and retagging everything…

Not a breeze, no. S’not like the old Autokeen days when all you have to do is rename files in FTP.

Considering that viewing anything without the lens of our culture is a skill few of us learn and almost none of us ever master I’d doubt her ever actually doing so.
Aside from that, it doesn’t invalidate those feelings as one’s own simply by the fact they’re feelings one is conditioned into, especially as typically one only deeply analyzes such conditioning when one’s own feelings run counter to it.

That’s what college is for- challenging your preconceptions and shit. I’ll bet once Joyce gets to be friends with actual open gays in/looking for committed relationships, she’ll get that they’re not that different. Her “find a husband” instincts might not be too different from Ethan’s.

I have the same problem. Sometimes I remember to shut up, usually the fifth post down after everyone’s taken everything I’ve said every single wrong way possible, and I’ve been personally attacked over it.

Just goes to show I need to keep a normal bedtime. I’m much more eloquent before 2AM.

I can’t say that’s entirely fair – I’m not Joyce’s biggest fan, but she is not the first Freshman in college to ever be ignorant of the GLBTQ people/issues/community/etc. One of my best friends was from a small town, she wasn’t extremely religious, but homosexuals and lesbians weren’t accepted or understood in her town. Was she a little grossed out at the prospect of two guys making out when she first heard about it? Yeah. Everyone in her town would have been too. Has she gotten over it since then? Very much so. She’s one of the most understanding people I know. Joyce has only been off her island for about a week. I’ve yet to see anyone change their home rooted opinions quite that fast. (She also, to her knowledge, doesn’t have a gay or lesbian friend, and would have less of a reason to change her mind anytime soon.)

All she said was that Billie saying “I’d sooner do his sister is gross,” and I think I kinda I agree with her.
Her reason for this may be anti-gay prejudice, but it seems like a big assumption to me. She said one, little, very specific thing.

She’ll grow out of it. That’s how I felt years ago. Homosexuality had never really registered on my radar, so my default reaction was “ew, gross.” Gradually, as I was exposed to the real world more and more, I got over it. ‘Course, that was back in middle school.

Gender trend (not always true): women are more easily disgusted by mental images, and in general grossed out. So, farting in bed, bathroom talk at the dinner table, and the idea of sex while not actually having sex with someone you love. I mean, I’ve heard hundreds of complains from women about how “I don’t need to see that” with regard to a guy’s junk; doesn’t keep them from enjoying said junk in the heat of passion.

I know quite a few girls who are grossed out by other naked girls. The majority of girls I’ve known have not made any comment one way or the other, though; it’s not a topic that comes up often. Would be an interesting survey to take, though I’m not sure I have the expertise to do it…

Can’t speak for the rest of my gender, but I am not personally disgusted by nude men. Just indifferent. I’d be uncomfortable around a bunch of creepy guys in a communal shower, but that’s more about what they might possibly do to me.

…um, no. I don’t think I’m talking about what you think I am. NICE BOAT wasn’t a webcomic, and the one I was thinking of… I guess had a kind of NICE BOAT-ish moment toward the end, but that’s not what this is a reference to.

“Basically” meaning “I don’t want to be responsible for finding the solid evidence for my vague recollection of stuff I read a couple of years ago.” No comment on whether that’s directly relevant to the topic…

The abrasive Nachito crumbs in Walky’s bed grind away excess body hair and exfoliate his skin like a pumice stone, as the discomfort they create causes him to constantly toss and turn. This constant movement exercises all muscle groups, accounting for his lean, toned figure.

But waitaminute, the lake hasn’t turned everyone else into badasses… and Walky is the person most recently out of the water in this strip, so the drowning must’ve just happened… and Sal’s the only known badass nearby… and she’s also not in this strip. So Sal drowned just now? Bummer.

Not only is Billie the one that brought up the idea of getting it on with Sal, and objecting only on the basis of being roommates… remember Sudden Sal Boobs, and Billie hurrying her away from the others a few days ago? Consider this: The only guy along on this trip is Sal’s brother. Who exactly was Billie trying to conceal Sal’s hotness from? And why?

I have no problem believing Joyce knows what shipping is. That doesn’t mean she goes around reading X-rated fanfic or anything. I have a harder time believing cheerleader party girl Billie knows about dorky fandom stuff though. Maybe she knows by osmosis, via Walky.

What? Just because she isn’t immediately attracted to the thought of girl-on-girl? I get all over her for her religious stuff, but this is pretty mild. It technically doesn’t even qualify as homophobic – she’s merely confirmed that she, herself, isn’t gay. Is that not allowed anymore? People not being gay?

Heather there didn’t say anything about homophobia. She could just as easily have been reacting to the fact that Joyce was defensively flailing her knowledge of the term “ship” without anybody so much as raising an eyebrow at her usage of the phrase.

I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time buying that Joyce would have been trafficking in areas of the internet where shipping was discussed. Shipping is a half-tiny baby step to the left of six types of shocking (shocking I say!) fanfics, and I where one roams, the other follows – if you can call arriving at the exact same time “following”. What sort of parental filter would allow it?

Personally, I discovered shipping through Harry Potter fan forums. And I often post on various fan forums (even for some shows I never watch and don’t like), and almost every fan forum has a ‘ships’ section. This, rather than fanfiction, is how I suspect that Joyce learned the word ‘shipping’.

My initial gut reaction to this comic is that Walky is acting significantly out of character in the fourth panel. I dunno how Willis feels about it, but it doesn’t jive with my concept of Walky over four different webcomics…

That last panel kinda makes Walky look considerably older and confident and far less dorky man-child. Its weird.

And don’t be homophoic Joyce. Particularly since there are tons of ships between you and half the female cast. Hell, if this was the original universe, she’d probably end up in a lesbian relationship at something like Robin.